Nikaah ~A MeeraSim SS~

~The Release~

I swallowed hard as I watched a new horde of guests piling into the lawn of the Khan Haveli,  ready and excited to witness the grand engagement ceremony that they'd been exclusively invited to. As I observed their glittering outfits, the lurid colour palette made me want to squint my eyes in discomfort. It was bad enough that the Khan family's so-called old school stylist had picked out the most disturbingly heavy ensemble that I'd ever worn in my life for this particular event- a beige-golden anarkali lined with heavy embroidery, whose volume made it hard to walk around on moist ground even whilst wearing tiny kitten heels. As a result, I wasn't sure if I could endure yet another source of annoyance as I looked at the guests and their flashy yet unsophisticated attire.

It had been two days since my infuriating yet deeply saddening exchange with Murtasim, following which I'd resolved to immediately agree to the marriage proposal as laid out by Chachi Salma Begum and Arsalan's family. Even though Murtasim was being annoyingly sanctimonious by letting me go, I'd decided to fight fire with fire by antagonising him further so as to make him understand what his decision would truly entail. I realised that I would be inflicting a great deal of pain upon him in the process, but I knew it was the only way to save him from his own altruism.

With a heavy heart, I'd gone to Chachi Salma Begum the morning after and informed her of my decision to go through with the marriage. Although she seemed accepting of it, I could tell that she didn't seem unabashedly overjoyed. This made me wonder if she'd uncovered the truth about Murtasim's feelings for me, and if this was truly the reason her happiness was short lived, I came to the conclusion that I might've misjudged how deeply she cared about him.

On my insistence, the wedding festivities were planned on extremely short notice, with the engagement ceremony being organized merely two days later and the other events such as the mayoun and the mehendi leading upto the nikaah ceremony a week after. Initially, Chachi begum had seemed utterly flabbergasted at my zeal to rush things along but I knew that it was necessary if I truly wanted Murtasim to feel cornered about his options. However, she'd ultimately given in, stating that she could possibly put together a relatively smaller ceremony within the next two weeks, which suited my purpose perfectly well.

Since the preparations for the engagement had kept me occupied in the last forty-eight hours, I'd barely gotten a chance to interact with Murtasim in order to see how he was coping with the announcement of the ceremony and the invites being sent out. I'd no intention of deriving any sort of sadistic pleasure from watching him suffer, but I knew that it was necessary to achieve my objective.

And now that the ring exchange ceremony was nearly about to begin, Murtasim seemed nowhere in sight. I began to scan my surroundings- starting at the dinner counters set several yards away from the main stage where Arsalan and I were sat in an uncomfortable metallic chair with unflattering, gilded edges on its legs, all the way to the entrance where all the invitees appeared to be arriving from. All the other members of the Khan family including its matriarch- Chachi Salma Begum, Anwar Khan, Mariam, as well as Haya were clearly visible to me at just a few feet away, but the very individual I'd orchestrated all these theatrics for seemed to have disappeared.

A perplexing mishmash of fear and anger began to materialise within me as I wondered whether he'd decided to give the event a miss in order to save himself the agony of watching me exchange rings with Arsalan as a formal commitment, which would mean that all my scheming had been for naught. Yet, I knew in my gut that the Murtasim I'd fallen for had never been cowardly enough to back away from a challenge- especially one that I'd initiated. Ultimately, I decided that he was probably off smoking his lungs out in the parking lot as he baked in his own, self-inflicted misery.

Come on, Murtasim. Where are you?

"Meerab...aap kuch khoyi, khoyi si lag rahi hai. Kya aap kisi ko dhoondh rahi hai?" Arsalan's voice prised me out of my thoughts, making me turn towards him.